Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - trip to montreal/bike shop rentals

my gf and i are heading out to montreal for a week. just wondering if there are any decent bike shops that will rent bicycles, specifically fixies or tandems. never been to montreal before-- is it a decent bike city?

Montreal has the worst roads and traffic of any first world city I've ever been too! Incredibly aggro drivers, potholes the size of bathtubs (well, not quite, but close :) )

I hope you have a better experience than I did there, or that some local can advise you were to go. I must've seen all the wrong parts.

hi
the bike shop i go have a fuji absolute tandem to rent.
www.velomontreal.com
i don't think that you'll find any fixie for rent around here... or any single speed.
but i might be wrong.

thanks for the link illoqique. we havent done much planning for site seeing so the guided bike tours might be kinda fun. hope i dont freak out the other tourists with my sponge like sweating ablilty...
would be nice to find a fixie rental, but oh well.

Montreal has the worst roads and traffic of any first world city I've ever been too! Incredibly aggro drivers, potholes the size of bathtubs (well, not quite, but close :) )

I hope you have a better experience than I did there, or that some local can advise you were to go. I must've seen all the wrong parts.

I couldn't disagree more. I thought Montreal was really easy to bike around and never felt in danger. It's probably because I live in New York City though, and you live in Vancouver :rolleyes: . Really though, I didn't find the traffic or drivers agressive. Though there are some mean hills.

There's a a cool bike shop whose name I don't recall around the corner from La Banquise, a poutine joint that serves up really good poutine (GET IT!! IT'S YUMMY) that forum member Food recommended to me for my weekend trip there about a month ago. It's on Rachel & Parc LaFontaine (see a city map). I know they run organized rides out of the shop, so they must rent bikes. (ps why don't you bring your own bikes? that's what i did...)

The link to my thread asking about cool stuff in Montreal is here (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=117393&highlight=montreal) . There are a lot of good suggestions for food, activity, and the like.

Also, turd just went to Montreal and is maybe still there. She might have some more good bike-centric suggestions for you.

Have fun. Quebec/Canada kicks ass. It's definitely one of my potential escape destinations to flee to once or before our neo-fascist empire falls. (yes, yes, I know about the neo-facism, if that's what you want to call it [which I don't necessarily do] of the Quebecois... whatevs.)

the shop your talking about is
www.cyclepop.ca

I couldn't disagree more. I thought Montreal was really easy to bike around and never felt in danger. It's probably because I live in New York City though, and you live in Vancouver :rolleyes: . Really though, I didn't find the traffic or drivers agressive. Though there are some mean hills.



I don't live in Vancouver- I just travel a lot. I'm comparing Montreal to other big cities I've ridden in- New York, Sydney, London, Buenos Aires and Santiago. All of these places have been surprisingly good for riding.

The only places I've tried riding in that were worse than Montreal were Ghana and Hong Kong, and those places have good excuses.

But yeah, Vancouver is an absolute dream to ride in. I love this place :)

The province of Quebec is well known internationally for its bad drivers. The drivers there are really absurd. Lanes are a joke. Many people just honk and drive through reds. It's a gong show. Crazy. There are bike lanes throughout the city, but the drivers are notorious for ignoring them, and cutting off cyclists. It's stupid.

http://www.legrandcycle.com/ is a great shop, near the one mentioned above. They are fixed friendly, rent bikes (not sure about fixed gear), and have a wicked coffee-shop inside the store.

http://www.cyclerobert.com/ this place sponsors the national track team, one of who's members lives in Montreal. I don't know if they rent, and the site is only in french (although the staff undoubtedly speaks english), but they must be fixed friendly.

le grand cycle is probably your best bet for a fixed firendly shop. they are the shop that most messers deal with, but i don't think that they have a track item in their store. although fixed friendly shops are kind of a misnomer. there are about 25 track bikes in this city that are ridden on the streets. 15 of which belong to messers. most shops have at most a pair of hubs, and the few (2) shops that do carry track stuff, carry mostly stuff that is currently used on the drome- carbon, bonded, tubulars, that kind of gear. cyclo-sprint in chambly is that kind of shop.

no shops rent fixed gears. in fact, I've never heard of a shop that does. even in williamsburg. i'd recommend brining your bikes if possible. if not, rent bikes from JR bicycletterie on rachel and esplanade. about 20 ish a day. he co-ordinates bicycle donation projects to south america, and is a real nice guy.

have fun

thanks for all the responses! im in montreal now, on st. denis at some internet coffee shop. this town is great, been here since thursday. mostly walked around for the first few days, finally found a bike shop yesterday by la banquise and rented a tandem. best thing weve done so far, renting the tandem. weve covered so much more in one day than in the first couple days. going to hit some museums today. biking culture is great here, bikes everywhere... ive only seen two fixies. interesting to see what a city is like with a developed bike culture. roads arent bad at all, riding in traffic is nothing, drivers tend to be more cyclist conscious than in the states. well, im off...